Without action, a goal is merely a dream. You can make any number of decisions, but nothing will happen until you act on those decisions.

It would be best if you considered your business goals.

• What can you do today to move one step closer to that specific business goal?
• What set of actions are available to you, which might move you closer to your business goals

What is an action plan?

Developing an action plan enables you to set out how you will address the aims and SMART objectives you have identified. 

As you define each goal or desire, you will need to decide on specific actions to help you move in the right direction to realise those goals. An action plan will help you focus on what’s new and when to do it. It is a list of tasks for you to carry out to achieve an objective. It defers from a to-do list in that it focuses on the achievement of a single goal. This allows you to concentrate on the stages of that achievement and monitor your progress towards it.

How to develop an action plan

An action plan consists of 8 steps.

• Setting objectives
• Assessing the objectives
• Identifying action required to meet the objectives
• Working out how to evaluate the activity 
• Agreeing on a time frame for action
• Identifying resources (human, financial, and technical)
• Finalising the plan

To draw up an Action Plan, list the tasks you need to carry out to achieve your goal. You must list all tasks and check they are compatible with the new vision. To use it, you carry out each task on the list with the timescale set. Ensure you have a monitoring process in place to have regular updates on the effectiveness of each solution. Without this, you will not know how effective the solution is. 

• What can you do today to move one step closer to that specific business goal?
• What set of actions are available to you, which might move you closer to your business goals

Turning vision into reality 

 Developing a detailed vision or focus of your life can be extremely helpful for most people, although it can be helpful to see it in the context of a three or five-year timespan. This can be the starting place you set out to achieve your future goals, ambitions and dreams. This is your opportunity to create a better future for yourself.

Be conscious of any excuses you make for yourself and formulating your plan. Individuals with low confidence a little experience may find it frightening to make commitments. You may feel and need to “hedge your bets” You may be experiencing concern indicating that your circumstances are beyond your control and might prevent you from achieving your goal; this sends a message that you’re not sure you can carry out the plan. You can! 

The subconscious brain (your creative, feeling side) Must work in tandem with your conscious (logic side). For a plan to succeed, you must “feel” it is right to believe in it and bring about the true behavioural changes required. If you pay “Lip service” to it, you are not and pining the behavioural changes that you are seeking. Your behaviour determines whether your plan will be a success or not. So it’s up to you to come up with a plan that you believe in. 

It is often helpful to take on a business coach. To go over those actions and your results. Your feelings about what you have achieved. It is this level of agreement commitment and performance analysis that makes coaching effectively. 

Regular coaching sessions will keep an individual focused and powerful means for implementing changes much faster than attempting them alone. A person will quickly realise that they can achieve far more with planning and self-discipline than they thought possible. In addition, taking charge of moving forward in just one area of your life is extremely motivating, and the resulting “ Feelgood factor“ often creates a reported effect, leading to positive changes in other areas of life and work. 

 Self-discipline 

Self-discipline is the art of ensuring that an individual takes consistent action in line with the highest standards. So, whatever you intend to do regularly to achieve some future goal, the process of doing these intentions regularly is self-discipline. 

 How to improve self-discipline?

• An individual must know what exactly they intend to do. Therefore, please have in mind what particular activities or behaviours you want to engage in and know when you want to engage in them.

• An individual must realise that the best way to master discipline is to practice it. Practising anything habitually and regularly will improve overall discipline. So, if it’s taking action daily towards your business’s growth, you must make sure they do exactly that.

• Whatever activity a person has decided to do regularly, you should begin it at a specific time, set your timetable around it and make sure it is a priority. Keep reminding yourself of why you are doing it. If it’s running each day, then reiterate The health benefits; if it’s stopping smoking, not only will the health benefits be obvious, but there will also be a financial gain.

• The final part involves keeping up the discipline. Unfortunately, most of us have begun doing something only to be tempted to fall by the wayside.

Here are some tips for you to help overcome such temptations to improve your self-discipline

1. Look honestly into the projected future and imagine;
2. How much easier it will be to keep up the discipline tomorrow if you do it today and gets progressively easier as time goes on.
3. The outcome of both continuing and this continuing and ask yourself honestly is it worth it.
4. Remember that successful people are successful because they do the things they like doing AND the things they don’t like doing because it allows them to get the results they want in the long run. Unsuccessful people don’t do either.
5. Understand that discipline builds character and makes you a better person.
6. Lastly, value your own words. Keep high internal standards, and when you say you will do something positive, even for yourself, make sure you do it.

And remember,

“If you keep on doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep on getting what you’ve always got. 

You will probably find that the road to achieving your goals is neither straight nor easy. You will face setbacks and difficulties – that’s life! But rather than allow these setbacks to set you back, keep on and be persistent. 

And above all, you should keep persisting until you succeed.